Northern Leaders Responsible for Al-Mustapha’s Ordeal – NYF

The Northern Youth Forum (NYF) has alleged that the Northern Leaders were responsible for the imprisonment of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha.

The famous youth non-governmental organisation (NGO) also claimed that “but for President Jonathan’s policy of non-interference with the work of the judiciary, the former Chief security officer to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, would not have regained his freedom.”

The group, in a reaction to Professor Ango Abdullahi’s press conference which it described as a calculated campaign to smear President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of 2015, said, “It is evident that the President’s respect for the Rule of Law played a pivotal role in Al-Mustapha’s walk to freedom and everyone knows that if the President had wanted, he would have worked against Al-Mustapha’s freedom, just like his predecessors form the North did and it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for Al-Mustapha to walk the streets of Nigeria a free man today.”

A copy of the release which was made available to newsmen and signed by its Northwest vice Chairman, Bello Abdulkadir, it berated the positions of the elder statesman.

On who founded the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the group faulted Professor Abdullahi and his co-traveller, Alhaji Dauda Birma, and said that neither Ango nor Alhaji Dauda could lay any legitimate claim to ownership of the NEF.

The Northern Youth Forum, said, “It is on record that the Northern Elders Forum was founded by late Dr. Abdulrahaman Okene and at no time did the late elder statesman hand it over to anyone,” and added that “Alhaji Birma, a former Minister of Education, has every right to belong to or lead any group in Northern Nigeria based on freedom of association as well as the right to declare support for any political ideology or candidate, but it does not make him or Ango the owners of Northern Elders Forum.”